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Wednesday, June 07, 2017

Washington Capitals: 2016-2017 By the Tens -- Forwards: Daniel Winnik

Daniel Winnik

“What you are will show in what you do.”

-- Thomas A. Edison

If a skater manages to dress for 91.2 percent of the games on his
schedule over a ten-year period, you could call him durable. If that same player does it for seven
different teams in the NHL, you could say he has a skill set in demand. Remember that when thinking of Daniel Winnik
as a “fourth liner.” Winnik’s 2016-2017
season, his first full season with the Caps after arriving at the trading
deadline in 2016, was among his best in his ten-year career. He set a personal best of 12 goals, had his
fifth career season with at least 25 points, had his second-best plus-minus
(plus-15), had his second-highest number of even-strength goals (10), tied a
personal best of two shorthanded goals (one of 12 players to record more than
one shorthanded goal for the Caps in a season since 2005-2006), and posted his
more efficient shooting percentage of his career (14.6 percent).

Winnik’s production, though modest, was consistent across his ten-game
splits. He scored in a range of two to
four points in each, save for his last split (12 games) in which he recorded
five points. He had at least one goal in
seven of his eight splits; he was a “minus” player only once in eight splits.

There was also a sense of timeliness to Winnik’s scoring. He was one of ten Caps with three or more
game-winning goals (all of which came on home ice), he and Jay Beagle
accounting for six game-winning goals from the fourth line. It was part of a broader profile of success
when he was contributing offensively, the Caps posting a 15-3-3 record when he
recorded at least one point.

Winnik was not the player on the road that he was at home, and vice
versa. The game splits were about even
(37 at home, 35 on the road), but the numbers he posted had distinct
differences. He was a scorer on his own
at home (9-4-13) but more of a helper on the road (3-9-12). Part of that was efficiency; he was a 20.0
percent shooter at home but just 8.1 percent on the road. He was plus-14 at home, but just plus-1 on
the road. He had only eight penalty
minutes at home but 41 on the road (including all three fighting majors).

Fearless’ Take… Winnik’s ice time was another indicator of success,
again perhaps a reflection of the team’s ability to roll all forward
lines. The Caps were 31-2-0 in games in
which Winnik skated at least 13 minutes.
They were just 4-7-3 in games in which he skated less than 11
minutes. And, as a product of his
consistency, the higher time logged came with higher shot totals and the
success that accompanied it. Washington
was 13-3-3 in games in which Winnik recorded at least two shots on goal.

Cheerless’ Take… Quality of competition mattered with Winnik’s numbers,
which might not be a surprise. He was
8-4-12, plus-10, in 33 games against teams that did not reach the postseason. On the other hand, he was 4-9-13, plus-5, in
39 games against teams that made the playoffs, 2-3-5, plus-1, in 24 games
against Eastern Conference playoff qualifiers.

Odd Winnik Fact… Daniel Winnik set a personal best in goals scored
despite averaging the lowest amount of ice time of his career (12:55 per game).

Game to remember… October 15th vs. New York Islanders

After dropping the season opener in Pittsburgh to the Penguins in a
Gimmick, the Caps opened the home portion of their season against the
Islanders, a team with playoff ambitions, having reached the postseason in each
of the previous two seasons. The Caps
scored first by dominating possession in the Islander end. Tom Wilson curled out of the left wing corner
and left the puck for Jay Beagle trailing him.
Beagle sent a pass out to John Carlson at the right point, and Carlson
wristed a shot that Winnik redirected past goalie Thomas Greiss to make it 1-0,
11:58 into the period. The Islanders
tied it two minutes later, and the game remained 1-1 into the second
period. Mid-way through the period, Karl
Alzner flipped the puck out of the defensive zone where Winnik chased it
down. Winnik chipped the puck toward the
middle of the ice, causing defenseman Travis Hamonic to get his feet crossed
and sending him to the ice. Winnik had a
clear path to the Islander net where he faked Greiss to his knees and slipped a forehand past his
right pad for what would be the game-winning goal in the Caps’ 2-1 win.

Game to forget… October 22nd vs. New York Rangers

The Caps started the season with a modest two-game home winning
streak. It did not reach three. Oh, it started well enough with the Caps
getting out to a 2-0 lead before the game was 15 minutes old. The Rangers scored four unanswered goals,
though, and the Caps had their first home loss of the season. For Winnik, “impactful” would not be an
adjective to describe his performance.
No points, one shot attempt (missed), a giveaway, and one lost faceoff
in nine minutes of play, only three shifts in the third period of the 4-2
loss. It would be a harbinger of things
to come for Winnik. He did not record a
point in four games against the Rangers for the season and recorded just one
shot on goal in 47 minutes of total ice time.

Postseason: 13 games, 0-0-0, minus-4

Daniel Winnik’s postseason had something of a chicken and egg quality
to it. Was his ice time reduced because
of poor play, or did his play suffer because of low ice time? In the first three games against Toronto in
the opening round, he averaged almost 15 minutes per game and had five shots on
goal, but no points. The Caps lost two
of those games in overtime. After that,
Winnik logged more than ten minutes only three times in ten games, all of them
in wins, two of them in overtime. It is
worth noting that he had seven games with fewer than ten minutes in the
playoffs and only two such games in the regular season.

Only once in those last ten games did Winnik record more than one shot
on goal – two shots in a 6-2 loss to the Penguins in Game 2 of the second
round. He recorded no shots in five of
those ten games. All in all, it was an
unfortunate postseason for Winnik, who did not record a point in 13 games. He
has now gone 32 straight postseason games without a point and has never scored
a goal in any of his 58 postseason appearances.

In the end…

As much as for any Capital, 2016-2017 was two different seasons for
Daniel Winnik. The regular season
portion of the campaign was what one would have wanted from a fourth line
forward. He was a sturdy penalty killer
(second among forwards in shorthanded ice time per game), and he chipped in
points as a part of what might have been the best fourth line in the
league. The postseason was another
matter entirely. It started
frustratingly and got worse. By the end
he was planted on the bench, not getting on the ice in the last 11 minutes of
the Caps’ 2-0 Game 7 loss to the Penguins in the second round, the team
desperate for an offensive spark that never came. Winnik, like too many of his teammates, just
didn’t or couldn’t do what needed to be done, even within his role, in the
postseason. It was another case of a
fine regular season lost in the disappointment of spring.

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The Washington Capitals ended the 2016-2017 as one of 12 franchises in the NHL never to win a Stanley Cup. Of that group, only the St. Louis Blues (48 seasons), Buffalo Sabres (45 seasons), and Vancouver Canucks (45 seasons) have gone longer never having won a Cup than the Capitals (41 seasons). Six teams came into the league after the Capitals entered the league in 1974-1975 and have won Stanley Cups: Colorado Rockies/New Jersey Devils (1976-1977), Edmonton Oilers (1979-1980), Quebec Nordiques/Colorado Avalanche (1979-1980), Hartford Whalers/Carolina Hurricanes (1979-1980), Tampa Bay Lightning (1992-1993), and the Anaheim Ducks (1993-1994).

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